Growler. A brown beer with a thin beige head. The aroma has notes of alcohol, bourbon, and over ripe fruits. The flavor is sweet with notes of malt, alcohol, bourbon, caramel, wood, and over ripe fruits. The body is sticky.

Tap at the brewery. Chestnut brown pour with minimal carbonation. Exquisite aroma of brown sugar, bourbon soaked oak staves, vanilla, and toffee. Those same flavors show up in the mouth along with some booze and a soft touch of hops. A very nice and pleasant barleywine to sip.

A typical medium brown pour covered by minimal off-white head. Unagressive, toasted malt focused aroma that does not fall into the extreme concentration trap and instead actually feels lighter than it is. Altimari always was a fan of balance despite its crazy experiments. Here, the bourbon was still relatively soft when I tried it, mostly importing vanilla whispers that complemented the grapey fruitiness. On the palate, the focus remains on the beautiful toast, accompanied by soft chocolate. Relatively lean-bodied for the style, it never feels syrupy. To me, not an outstanding example, but unpretentious and expertly extracted malt flavours.

A: The pour is a dark amber color with a fairly minimal off-white/cream colored head.

S: The bourbon barrel has done the aromas justice here. An enhanced chocolate character goes really well with the vanilla, toffee, caramel, and light bourbon. In addition to all that goodness, some dark fruits and oak round out the nose.

T: The flavor does not seem all that changed from the original beer. Certainly a bit more alcohol and vanilla, but still a solid toffee, caramel, chocolate, and dark fruit flavor profile.

M: Medium to full in body with a nice low, smooth carbonation and silky feel on the tongue.

D: I don’t know if this is so much better than regular Old Inventory, but I would drink either version all day. Absolutely delicious!

On tap @ Stone Bistro. Glowing fiery ember body with a thin eggshell head. Incredible aroma of caramel, dark fruit, dominant pure vanilla bean, toffee and brown sugar. The waft of bourbon and wood are also there. Flavor again most noticeably shows the vanilla with less aggressive molasses and roasted malt also evident. Nice silky mouthfeel, although the carbonation tickles the tongue a bit.

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